2019 Rerun
Nikkari Aoe and Ookurikara are called on an expedition in Mikawa 1543, but they run into some unexpected bad luck. They answer the cries of the Matsudaira clan too late, and furthermore, they cannot return to the Citadel since they've lost all contact with their home time period. Even worse, with the Time Retrograde Forces destroying the clan near completely, nobody historically important is left to help cultivate Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu and groom him into the man that unifies Japan and makes the Bakufu. However, one lone child survives the massacre; and in a last ditch effort to save the clan the baby is given to the two Touken Danshi.When Ishikirimaru and the Matsudaira clan blades come in to assist them, the former suggests one daunting task—they take up the names and roles of Ieyasu's retainers and carry out the historical events as they should happen, from scratch.
However, the huge timeline upset from the massacre calls forth a foe quite unlike the usual Retrograde Forces, and threatens to become more of a danger if the new timeline goes one foot out of order...
Tropes:
- Age-Progression Song: "Kazaguruma" serves as this, showing the maturity of both Ieyasu and his son.
- Anger Born of Worry: After Tonbokiri returns from the Battle of Anegawa victorious, Ieyasu lays into him for attempting to win by himself. Above all he's just grateful that Tonbokiri made it back in one piece.
- Book Ends: At the beginning of the play, Ishikirimaru begins writing his record of the Mikawa mission, and runs into Ookurikara, trying to capture his likeness for the record and asking him to read it when it's done. By the end, Ishikirimaru has left the book while rushing for horsekeeping duty; when Ookurikara comes back, he does end up taking a quick look through the book and even smiles when he gets to his picture.
- Big Sleep: How Ieyasu's death is portrayed here. After reflecting on his victories and seeing his son one last time with what he thinks are the shades of his trusted retainers, Ieyasu passes in Monoyoshi's arms singing his childhood lullaby as he slips away.Monoyoshi: You lived a good life. Sweet dreams.
- Call-Back: Right after the Battle of Okehazama, Ishikirimaru and Ookurikara get into a fight over the latter's seeming indifference towards the bloodshed of the Warring States era. When Ookurikara's on the losing end of the fight, Ishikirimaru comments that the other man's sword is "light", and that he can't cut anything like that. They later have a rematch at Gohei's grave, Ishikirimaru now commenting that his sword has become heavier with the weight of an innocent life taken.
- Dark Horse Victory: Discussed by Nikkari and Sengo. Ieyasu, of the major players during the war, was about the least remarkable outside of his going on to unify Japan. He wasn't nearly as charismatic as Nobunaga (and was under the man's thumb for a good amount of it), and not as flashy as Toyotomi Hideyoshi; one has to wonder what he did to make himself the success he was.
- Double-Meaning Title: "Tada, Katsu Tame ni" refers not just to Tonbokiri's desire to see Ieyasu's hand in the Battle of Anegawa to completion, but also to emphasize how he's doing it to uphold the historical importance of his master (Tadakatsu Tame ni).
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Gohei in Nobuyasu's arms after Taking the Bullet, and Ieyasu in Monoyoshi's arms when he died of old age.
- Foreshadowing: The Nobuyasu of the new timeline is a gentle boy who seeks neither war nor glory. When he's first introduced, he's very fixated on getting in the dirt and picking flowers, and is fascinated about Gohei's previous life as a farmer. This is all setup for his final appearance, where he takes on Gohei's name and becomes a farmer in the peaceful era he and his father built.
- Framing Device: The whole musical is the result of Ishikirimaru reminiscing on their previous mission, so that he can write a record of what happened.
- Grave-Marking Scene: Some time after Gohei dies, three people come to his grave to talk—Ishikirimaru, Ookurikara, and Nobuyasu. In Ookurikara's case, he intended to leave flowers at the grave, but decides against it until their fight for a peaceful world comes to an end.
- Grief Song: "Chikara ni Areba" has Ishikirimaru sing of his regret for being unable to save Gohei from an ambush, and in general for his sadness over his inability to save everyone.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: Tonbokiri does one for the legend of Honda Tadakatsu; the original Tadakatsu's most well known feat had him up against 1,000 enemy soldiers, while Tonbokiri was said to go up against ten thousand of them.
- I Will Fight No More Forever: After seeing the war take the life of his dearest friend, alongside his own personal distaste of war, Nobuyasu decides to lay down his sword and request to be disowned on the day of his planned death. While this gets him into a skirmish with Ieyasu, he was not fully able to escape the horrors of war until he was assumed dead.
- I Wrote Our Story: After the Mikawa mission ends, Ishikirimaru takes it upon himself to write about what happened during it in a book, since the details would be lost to time otherwise.
- Irony: Nikkari Aoe's best known legend was cutting down the ghost of an infant, which is why he thinks he isn't worthy of becoming a divine sword. However, he of all people is given baby Ieyasu (who grows up to be considered divine as Japan's ruler) in the beginning and is one of the people primarily responsible for his growth and development.
- Longest Prologue Ever: Quite the big one here. We open with a Touken Danshi being newly summoned, the Matsudaira clan wiped out, the mission of the musical given shortly afterwards, and the Touken Danshi given the baby Tokugawa Ieyasu, all before "Touken Ranbu" even gets a chance to play. That's a good 25 minutes in.
- Meaningful Rename:
- Young Takechiyo Matsudaira, as in history, changes his name quite a few times. Upon hitting puberty he becomes Matsudaira Motoyasu, and finally, after joining up with Oda Nobunaga, renames himself into Tokugawa Ieyasu.
- In the end, Nobuyasu renames himself Gohei after his fallen friend, taking up his life of farming as well.
- Morton's Fork: No matter who wins Sengo's sparring match, he gets to see stripping. If he wins, the loser strips; if he loses, the winner has to strip in celebration.
- Parents for a Day: And then some, since the Touken Danshi raise Ieyasu (and his son) from the cradle on as Parental Substitutes and retainers. More specifically, Nikkari, Monoyoshi, Tonbokiri and Ishikirimaru take primary raising duty, while Muramasa and Ookurikara fight on the interim. Deconstructed, as their growing attachments to their charges prevent them from truly carrying out their mission, and they genuinely start to see them as family (and vice versa). Ishikirimaru is hit the hardest about this, but chooses to exclude his inner turmoil from the recollection.
- Plot Hole: The members discuss that Ieyasu only became what he was in the books with his influences in life, such as his retainers, his family, and his historical feats. The same can be said of the people the Touken Danshi have to fill in for as well; they too had family members and people known to history who made some impact on their lives, yet because we only focus on Ieyasu's growth we never get to see what happens to the Danshi's "characters". Add that to the problem of staying for apparent decades, and we have quite the puzzling situation here.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: There are many in this musical like the rest, but Tonbokiri's during the Battle of Anegawa stands out:Tonbokiri: My lord! I'm off to destroy my weak self!
Ieyasu: What? Where?
Tonbokiri: (*gestures to the battlefield*) Over there!
[cue Tonbokiri singlehandedly mowing down thousands of soldiers through song] - Pyrrhic Victory: At the end of his life, Ieyasu looks at the peaceful, unified Japan outside his window and still curses the large amounts of blood he spilled just to get things the way they currently were. The war took civilians, his men, and even his son's retainer and his son as well, or so he thinks; despite being the overall victor, he still held lots of regret.
- Quit Your Whining: When Nobuyasu expresses distaste for war and wishes to be disowned, Ieyasu calls the whole attitude selfish; nobody wants to be fighting right now, least of all Ieyasu, but his involvement is to be expected of an up and coming heir. The speech only makes Nobuyasu want to commit honorable suicide instead to not disgrace the family name further.
- Recurring Riff: "Kibou no Minamoto" and "Ruri Iro no Sora" have riffs all over the musical; the first played during narrations of the mission and the latter is associated with Ieyasu's growth.
- Seppuku: In the historical timeline, Nobuyasu is ordered to do so by Ieyasu, himself under the orders of Oda Nobunaga. The reasoning varies in historical accounts, but generally assumed to be because of uncooperative and unruly behavior on Nobuyasu's part. However, because of his loving and healthy upbringing in the new timeline, there is no reason for this to happen; so instead, Nobuyasu wants to do it himself because he's tired of war and feels like a disgrace to his family for feeling so. He eventually settles on asking Ishikirimaru to execute him.
- Significant Double Casting: The boys who play 'Takechiyo', Shuri Ayuba and Yukito Kojima, also play young Nobuyasu.
- Skyward Scream: Ishikirimaru has a pretty big one when Nobuyasu sacrifices himself to protect the former from the Kebiishi.
- Teach Me How To Fight: As an unskilled farmer, Gohei is ill-suited for fighting in war. He looks to Ookurikara for help, begging him to teach him swordsmanship.
- Unexplained Recovery: Despite being cut in the neck and shoulder, Nobuyasu apparently survived the injury and became a simple farmhand offscreen. No details are given as to how this happens.
- War Is Hell: Ishikirimaru, being a sword used for ceremonies and healing, isn't quite used to the horrors of the battlefield. As such, while he's initially stoic about his human kills, it took one enemy crying out for mercy for Ishikirimaru to come back to seeing the whole act as barbaric and cruel.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Monoyoshi gets rather defensive about Ishikirimaru preparing to kill Nobuyasu, saying that he's taking the life of an innocent man.
- What Would X Do?: Tonbokiri has a pretty hard time adjusting to his own master's role in history, not knowing how to live up to his legacy. It takes a good talking to from Monoyoshi to snap him out of it, saying that Tonbo's fear of inadequately filling his shoes is the exact disgrace he was worried about, and tells him to be himself instead.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The whole musical was shown as a flashback to the events of the Ieyasu mission, with the exceptions of the beginning and end segments.
- Wild Card Excuse: In order to make sure history goes as intended, Monoyoshi gives out strategies and advice accordingly to Ieyasu. Every time he's asked how he came to those conclusions, Monoyoshi always answers "luck".
- You Are Too Late: The musicals' first true victory for the Retrograde Forces comes at the very beginning, where they wipe out the whole Matsudaira clan. Ookurikara and Nikkari notice Okazaki Castle burning, but arrive too late to save anyone other than a single infant.
- You Will Be Beethoven: But out of necessity; the entire Matsudaira clan was wiped out thanks to the Retrograde Forces, so all Touken Danshi available had to, at one point or another, take the place of a person who was important to Ieyasu's history.
